Tag Archives: Savile

Two today, both Yorkshire ancestors from the 1700s: a schoolmaster and an innkeeper/parish constable.

10 March 1719
Baptism of my ggggggg uncle John Savile at Royston, Yorshire, son of school master Robert Savile and Martha Senior. I can’t find a marriage for him or baptisms for any children. However, in 1773 there was a burial at Royston of John Savile schoolmaster of Cudworth which could well be the same John Savile.

10 March 1782
Baptism of my ggggg uncle George Green at Worsbrough, Yorkshire, son of innkeeper Joseph Green and Alice Rock. Piecing together the rather scant entries in the OPRs for Worsbrough, it seems that George married Sarah Linley in 1804 but they did not have any children. Sarah died, date unknown, and at some stage George “took up” with Hannah Ellis, who bore his illegitimate child in 1820. However, George Green and Hannah Ellis were married at Worsbrough in 1825 and had another 3 children. The 1834 Pigot’s Directory lists George Green as the innkeeper of the Horse & Jockey at Ward Green, and he is also listed in the 1835 Barnsley Poll Book as residing in Ward Green. He is in the 1841 census at Ward Green as a publican, with wife Hannah, 4 children and a female servant. He appears in the Poll Books of 1841 and 1848 and is on the 1848 Electoral Roll at Ward Green. His death is recorded on a monumental inscription at St Mary’s Worsbrough which commemorates his parents: it says “George Green, his son, who succeeded him at Ward Green, and was many years constable and relieving officer, died in 1850 aged 63 years”. The job of a parish constable at that time a part time one, linked to the church, the constable being responsible for the maintenance of law and order within the parish boundaries and also for sorting out beggars and vagrants who passed through the parish. They were also involved in tax collection. It was therefore a responsible position, and George Green must have been a respected member of the parish.

My Fraser great grandfather today, from Hatton in Aberdeenshire. Also a Savile from Royston in Yorkshire who died young, and an Adam from Stevenston who migrated to Boston, lost all her sons due to them dying within days of being born, lost her husband when she was in her early 40s and then died herself in her 50s.

5 February 1728
Birth of my ggggggg aunt Jane Savile at Royston who was baptised at Royston on 16 February, daughter of schoolmaster Robert Savile and Martha Senior. Jane died in January 1732 at almost 4 years of age.

5 February 1829
Birth or baptism of Elizabeth Adam at Stevenston, daughter of my gg aunt Margaret Haddow and Francis Adam. She is one of the 8 in the household of Francis Adam at Townhead, Stevenston in 1836, but is not with her parents in the 1841 census – there is, though, an Elizabeth Adam age 12 in New Street, Stevenston with a Margaret Adam age 68. Elizabeth is with her parents in 1851, though, at Townhead Street, and is a hand sewer of muslin. In January 1856 she married coal miner John Godfrey at Stevenston, and they had 2 children baptised in Stevenston in 1857 and 1859. They then migrated to the USA and went to Boston: they are in the USA records asa having children born and buried in the 1860s. All their sons died at a few days old but one daughter born in the 1860s survived. The family is in 1870 census in South Boston, John Godfrey a labourer, Betsey (as Elizabeth is called) age 37 keeping house, 3 daughters at school and a son age 1 month. The son died a few days later. Elizabeth’s husband then died in 1871. The 1881 census has Eliza Godfrey age 48 at Atlanta Street, South Boston with her 3 daughters, all now working. In 1883 two of her daughters were married, and then Elizabeth died in 1885, at the age of 55, of peritonitis.

5 February 1865
Birth of my great grandfather William Fraser at Oldtown of Aquharney, Cruden, son of Alexander Fraser and Mary Ann Logan. William was the eldest child of his father, who was a farm servant, and had a sister born when he was 2. But in August 1867 – when William was still 2 years old – his mother died of tuberculosis. As his mother died at Mosside Croft, the home of William’s Fraser grandparents, it’s likely that William and his sister lived there immediately after the death of their mother while their father worked on nearby farms. In 1868, however, Alexander Fraser married Margaret Booth at Longside and William acquired a stepmother. In 1871 he is at Fortrie, Ellon with father Alexander, stepmother Margaret, his sister, Margaret’s Booth illegitimate son, 2 new half sisters, and a visitor and her daughter. In 1877 his grandfather died and his father took over the croft of Mosside near Hatton. By 1881 William has become a farm servant and is at Tuechan, Cruden. He married Helen Hay in 1889, at Mosside: he was a farm servant at Mains of Elrick and she was a domestic servant at a nearby inn. They are in the 1891 census at Mains of Elrick, Savoch, with a baby daughter. Their next 2 children were born at Aikenshill, Foveran and the next at Waterton, Ellon. In the 1901 census the family is as Mill of Brogan, Slains where William is the head cattleman. A daughter was born in 1901, and then in 1905 William’s wife Helen Hay died of chronic enteritis. With 5 young children, William no doubt took them to Mosside Croft initially, but in the 1905 Valuation Roll William Fraser is paying £5 10s a year rent as the tenant occupier of a house in Hatton which is owned by farmer George Chrystall. By then Helen Ann Morgan has become his housekeeper: she already had an illegitimate daughter and gave birth to a illegitimate child named William in 1906. William Fraser married Helen Ann Morgan in 1907 at Hatton, and they went on the have 4 more children. In 1911 the family is at Hatton Lodge, William a farm cattleman, and the eldest two children of Helen Hay are now working. When his father died, William took over the lease of Mosside croft and moved there in 1911. In the 1915 Valuation Roll he is listed as the tenant of a croft and house at Hardslacks on the Estate of Yonderton paying £6 a year rent. During the 1920s and early 1930s my mother, daughter of William’s son James with first wife Helen Hay, used to stay at Mosside during the summer school holidays and remembered her grandfather and step grandmother well. Helen Ann Morgan died in 1938. William Fraser is listed as the tenant and occupier of Mosside croft in the Valuation Rolls of 1935/36 and 1940/41, but in 1945/46 the tenant has become Allan Thomson. In 1944 Allan Thomson had married Helen Rennie, who was the granddaughter of Helen Ann Morgan and who had been brought up at Mosside as her mother had died. William Fraser died in 1948 and the memorial inscription that was in Cruden kirkyard gave his date of death as 23 June 1848. However, despite a very thorough search I cannot find a death certificate for him.

The only ones on these two days are all from Yorkshire: a Savile ancestor born 287 years ago who was a schoolmaster, a Green and a Haigh both of whom disappear from the records, and a Senior ancestor whose father was a sub post master and farmer.

31 January 1727
Baptism of my ggggggg uncle George Savile at Royston, Yorkshire, son of Robert Savile and Martha Senior. It seems that he became a school master, as in July 1759 George Savile of Royston schoolmaster was married by licence to Elizabeth Twitty of the parish of Wath, and his brother Samuel was one of the witnesses. They had children baptised in Royston, but then there is a burial at Royston in July 1770 of George Savile schoolmaster of Cudworth.

30 January 1820
Birth of George Green at Worsbrough, Yorkshire, son of my ggggg uncle George Green and Hannah Ellis. He is living at Ward Green, Worsbrough with his parents and siblings in 1841 and is a warehouseman: his father is a publican and the family employs a female servant. In 1851 George is unmarried, a labourer, and still at Ward Green with his mother, who is a widow and innkeeper, and his younger siblings. I can’t find a anything for him after that so don’t know what became of him.

31 January 1847
Baptism of Ann Haigh at Royston, Yorkshire, daughter of my gggg uncle John Haigh and Hannah Allen. Her baptism record gives John Haigh’s occupation as boatman, and not long after Ann’s birth the family moved to Pollington, where John Haigh worked as a boatman on the Knottingly and Goole Canal. Ann is with her parents and siblings in Pollington in 1851 and 1861 but I can’t find anything for her after that, though my research has been no means exhaustive.

30 January 1891
Birth of Ethel Senior at Carlton, daughter of my ggg uncle James Senior and Selina. Her father was the sub post master at Carlton as well as being a farmer, but by 1911 had moved to Ivy Farm where 20 year old Ethel was working in the dairy. She married Herbert Howell at Carlton in 1921.

A ggggg Yorkshire grandmother born 256 years ago and who married a weaver, a Haggerty descendent from Ayrshire who had but a short life, and a Fraser from Mosside croft in Aberdeenshire who married a soldier during WW1 and went to Canada.

15 January 1758
Baptism of Ann Savile at Royston, Yorkshire, daughter of Samuel Savile and Francis Hutchinson and who I suspect is my ggggg grandmother. There was a marriage in Royston in 1779 of Joseph Haigh weaver and Ann Savile, and they had 11 children baptised at Royston from 1780 to 1801, including my gggg grandfather Joseph Haigh. Joseph married Hannah Atkinson and had lots of children including Charlotte Haigh, who married George Simpson and was the grandmother of my great grandmother Charlotte Senior. So that line goes back quite a long way in the same parish.

15 January 1866
Birth of Matthew Richmond at Stevenston, Ayrshire, son of my half ggg aunt Jean Pollock and John Richmond, and grandson of my ggg grandmother Jean Orr who had been married to Joseph Haggerty but gave birth to illegitimate daughter Jean Pollock after her husband had died. Matthew had a short life as he died at Hurlford in 1869.

14 January 1889
Margaret (Maggie) Fraser was born at Mosside croft, Hatton near Cruden, Aberdeenshire, illegitimate daughter of my half gg aunt Christian Fraser. Her mother married farm servant James Reid in December 1890 at Mosside, and in the 1891 census Margaret appears as Maggie Reid, with her mother and stepfather, at Mortimer’s House, Boddam. Her stepfather died at Stuartfield, Old Deer in 1893 and in 1895 her mother married James Andrews. The 1901 census has Maggie Fraser, age 12 and at school, with her mother and labourer stepfather at Old Machar, Aberdeen. In May 1917 Margaret Fraser, domestic servant age 27, married Robert Henry Cooper, a boilermaker, corporal with the Aberdeen Army and a widower, who lived in Toronto but during WW1 served with the British Exchange Force. The marriage certificate does not say who Maggie’s father was, and as she used the surname Fraser it would seem that her mother’s first husband, James Reid, was not Maggie’s father. Maggie’s husband Robert returned to Canada on a troop ship in June 1918, by which time he was a sergeant, and Maggie sailed to Canada in September 1919. They are in the census in Toronto in 1921, with 2 children and a daughter from Robert’s first marriage, and Robert is employed as a constable.

A busy day today for births, and a very varied bunch of ancestors. A very long ago Yorkshire ancestor, who was a schoolmaster and parish clerk; a Watt from Aberdeenshire that I can’t find; a Haddow who spent all her life on Townhead Street in Stevenston; a Strachan descendant who lived on Cadgers Road in Hurlford and had sons who became tea merchants; a Strachan descendant who migrated to Queensland in Australia and became a newsagent; a Senior descendant who married a coal miner here in Yorkshire; and in Aberdeenshire a Fraser descendant who worked for a stationer and married a tailor.

26 November 1685
My ggggggg grandfather (phew!) Robert Savile, was baptised at Flockton, Yorkshire, son of Robert Savile and Ann. I can trace descent from him via his son Samuel Savile, Samuel’s daughter Ann Savile who married Joseph Haigh, their son Joseph Haigh, his daughter Charlotte Haigh who married George Simpson, and their daughter Mary who married Edward Senior and was the mother of my great grandmother Charlotte Senior. And the coincidence in that long chain is that, back in 1713, Robert Savile married Martha Senior. Robert Savile was the schoolmaster and parish clerk for Royston, had 7 children, and died at Royston in 1757.

26 November 1785
Baptism of my ggggg uncle James Watt at Bourtie, Aberdeenshire, son of John Watt and Helen Davidson. I would tell you more about him if I knew anything, but I don’t – can’t find anything in the records that looks as if it’s him, so he either laid low all his life or died young.

26 November 1786
Birth of my ggg aunt Margaret Haddow at Stevenston, Ayrshire, daughter of Robert Haddow and Margaret Hunter. In 1806 she married Francis Adam, a coal miner, and they had 10 children all baptised in Stevenston. Francis and Margaret are in the 1819 church list for Stevenston at Townhead with 4 children still at home, in 1822 with 3 children at home, and in 1836 with a household of 8. They then appear in the first national census in 1841, still at Townhead Street: Margaret and 2 of her daughters are muslin sewers, Francis is a coal miner, their youngest child is 5, and with them is a lodger whose family appear to live next door. They are still there in 1851, though by then Francis is a retired coal miner pauper, which means he was receiving parish relief: he was most probably unable to work as he had died by 1856, when one his daughters married. Margaret is in the 1861 census, still at Townhead Street, with a daughter and a granddaughter who are muslin sewers. She died in 1866 at Stevenston.

26 November 1838
Birth of Mary Munro Findlay at Riccarton, Ayrshire, daughter of David Findlay and Susanna Strachan, and granddaughter of my gggg uncle Peter Strachan and Mary Monroe. She’s with her parents at Bridge House Hill, Riccarton in 1841 and her father is a coal miner. Her mother died at around the time Mary’s brother James was born in 1847, and in 1849 her father married Margaret Brown. In 1851 the family are at Portland Row, Hurlford, and by then David and his second wife had 11 children between them, age from 18 down to 1, and all of them were living with them so it must have been a very crowded house. Mary married coal miner James Findlay in 1858: given his surname he was possibly a relation. They had set up home on Cadgers Road, Hurlford by 1861 and remained there for the rest of their lives, bringing up 10 children. Mary’s two eldest sons became tea merchants in Glasgow and her third migrated to the US and become a department store manager.

26 November 1869
Birth of Peter Inglis at Riccarton, Ayrshire, son of Alexander Inglis and Janet Strachan, and great grandson of my gggg uncle Peter Strachan and Mary Monroe. The family lived at Hurlford and then Muirkirk as Peter’s father was a miner, and then the whole family – parents and 8 children – left for Australia in 1887 and went to a coal mining area in Queensland. In 1901 Peter married Josephine Regina Bray, and can be traced via the online Australian electoral rolls. He started out as a coal miner in Cawarral, but then moved to various suburbs of Brisbane where he was a newsagent. He died in 1942.

26 November 1890
Birth of Lillian Fletcher at Royston, Yorkshire, daughter of my gg aunt Annie Senior and John Fletcher, who was a miner. She’s in Royston with her family in 1891, but just before the 1901 census the family had moved to Featherstone, and they were still there in 1911: Lillian age 20, being the eldest daughter of a large family, and with boarders in the house, doesn’t have an occupation and so was probably helping her mother at home. In June 1913 she married Alfred Hill, a miner, at Featherstone. Nothing else known except that she died in Pontefract in 1950.

26 November 1920 marriage (born 1899)
Jemima Ann Sim Andrews was the daughter of my half gg aunt Christian Fraser and James Andrews, and was born in 1899 at Ellon, Aberdeenshire. In 1901 she is with her parents at Old Machar, and in 1911 at Hutcheon Street, Aberdeen. On 26 November 1920 she married tailor Peter Mathieson in Aberdeen, and at the time was a stationer’s assistant. She died at Old Machar in 1945 at age 46.

The furthest I’ve got back –
is in Yorkshire, to Richard Savile born in 1601 (exactly 350 years earlier than me). He is my ggggggggg grandfather, so if you count me as generation 1, Richard is generation 12! Or at least it looks as if he’s my direct ancestor – firm connections are hard to prove going back that far. In 1601, Queen Elizabeth I was still on the throne, and Shakespeare’s play Hamlet probably had its first performance. The only reason anyone can get back to that time is because good records were kept and have survived. Richard Savile came from Flockton, a village now half way between Huddersfield and the M1. Robert Savile, born there in 1865, ended his life in the parish of Royston, which is where my great grandmother Charlotte Senior came from. Interestingly, Robert Savile married Ann Senior but I haven’t yet found out if or how Ann was related to Charlotte born 218 years later.

I can get the furthest back –
in Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire. This is due to two things. One is that the records seem to have been better kept there than in Ayrshire, and have survived, and the other is that my Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire ancestors stayed within the same small area, whereas my Ayrshire ancestors moved around a lot more and quite possibly weren’t from Ayrshire prior to the 1700s.

There are some neat surname duplications –
which are probably just coincidence but are nice to have nonetheless. One I really like is that on my Strachan (Ayrshire) tree I have Thomas Strachan marrying Susannah Alexander in 1771 and on my Fraser (Aberdeenshire) tree I have William Alexander marrying Ann Strachan in about 1750.

There’s something odd about the McCrae line –
which I need to really think about and try and sort out. I have a dead end with John McCrae as I can only find his mother in the records – there’s no trace of his father. His mother was, according to what her son said when she died, born Mary Henderson, daughter of John Henderson and Jean McCrae and I can’t find out anything about either of them. So her mother’s maiden suname was the same as her husband’s, which is perfectly possible but is making me think there just might be some illegitimacy going on. Or they might have come from Ireland. If they were Irish, this makes my McCrae tartan kilt – which an aunt sent to me when I was in my 20s and moved to London – a bit irrelevant.

We Strachans have more Irish blood than our more recent ancestors realised –
which may not be what some of our more recent ancestors would have liked to know! But with names such as Haggerty, Murphy, McCrae, Henderson and McInerney on the tree, Irish links are inevitable. I haven’t done any research into Irish records as of yet as it is a daunting task when you’ve no idea whereabouts in Ireland they might have come from.

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